USNM Curators Annual Reports: Department of Marine Invertebrates, Semi-Annual Reports, January - June 1885

When a curator tells you a lot of specimens have arrived, what does that look like? In April 1885, for Curator Richard Rathbun of the United States National Museum's Department of Marine Invertebrates "a lot" include 775 packages from the steamer Albatross sailing in the Gulf of Mexico and the southeastern United States. Some of those packages included 16-gallon tanks and barrels. Parts of the shipment went to other museum departments, but help us transcribe this semi-annual report and see how Rathbun dealt with the majority of the Albatross's spring shipment.